The City of Duluth Parks and Recreation Department, working with the Minnesota Geocaching Association, have completed a Geocaching Policy for the City of Duluth.

Erin Wenneson, representing the Duluth Parks and Recreation Department as well as being a geocacher herself (as dmnrec), prepared and shared a possible draft policy with some people at Pear Head'sDuluth Area Geocaching Meeting on April 15. The MnGCA met with her then and continued to work with her in the following weeks to create a geocaching policy that protects the interests of Geocachers as well as protecting the interests of the City of Duluth and area residents. Numerous communications were passed back and forth, and various drafts were pounded out and refined both by the MnGCA Board and the The City of Duluth Parks and Recreation Department.

A lot of work has gone into it, and I personally feel that this is close to a "model" policy that can be used if other park authorities decide they want to have a geocaching policy. The City of Duluth is very geocaching friendly and wanted to stay that way.

I think it looks good. My thanks to the MNGCA board and the Duluth Parks & Rec for a quality set of guidelines.

It's basically no more restrictive than the gc.com guidelines, with a little bit of common sense added in (no sanctuaries, campgrounds, zoos, environmental preservation areas, and places that are ecologically sensitive).

The only line I didn't really understand was this one:

Duluth Geocaching Policy wrote:

The hider is also responsible for the upkeep of relevant information about the park and area the geocache is located in.

I would assume that means the cacher should be aware of changes at the park- changes in hours, work being done in the area that would effect the cache, etc and post it on the cache page. I think this is a very good policy- thank you to all who gave of their precious time to volunteer to work on this project._________________LIFE IS GOOD;CABIN LIFE IS GREAT

Last edited by eagleyes on Wed May 18, 2005 4:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

The hider is also responsible for the upkeep of relevant information about the park and area the geocache is located in.

Can you explain the meaning of that one further?

This is the upkeep of information such as park hours, recommended parking coordinates, any trail closings inside the park or other information that would be needed for a geocache finder to get to the cache while abiding to the geocaching policy.

Pretty much the same information geocaching.com suggests you put on cache pages. The policy just asks that it stays current.

If things change in the park...

Duluth Geocaching Policy wrote:

The City of Duluth Parks and Recreation Department will notify the hider if there are any seasonal restrictions or relevant policy changes concerning the park or geocache area.

...so the cache hider can update the page with information letting the cache finders know that "These trails are closed until spring" or "access isn't available from the west, please access from the east," for example.

Mainly informative stuff that's relevant to finding the cache so people can comply with the policy. I assume not much will need to change for most caches. Nothing will need to change for any Duluth cache I've done.